Tuesday, September 04, 2012

More Bones! Gotta love them Bones by Reaper - this is my second test model (first was the ghost) with the new plastic Bones from Reaper. Again, I placed him on a plastic base from Fortress Figures. These figures look great - forget about the mold line - just go with it - paint 'em up and play with the 'em. This is the second Bones figure I cranked out on the same day. I named him Sir Jacks as a tribute to one of my favorite sculptors - Bobby Jackson and yes, this is one of his sculpts

I used Vallejo game color paints directly without a primer - unlike the Reaper paint (I only have one bottle of the Reaper paints - Clouded Sea - which I used on the ghost), any significant watering down of the paint caused it to run and not stick to the plastic. However, I had heard when doing some research that using it full strength out of the bottle worked very well. Indeed - ditto the same results - full strength without dilution (or very minor - just a wet brush - enough to make it flow) worked very well. Again, I banged and bounced the mini around while and after painting with no ill effect to the paintjob - like the ghost, I did hit it up with a very light coat of dull coat just to take the shine off the surface.

Painting Instructions for Male Human Warrior:

Step 01: Use Chaos Black on all armored areas
Step 02: Use Regal Blue on robe
Step 03: Use Scab Red on shield face
Step 04: Use Scorched Brown on leather and back of shield
Step 05: Drybrush Boltgun Metal on all armored areas
Step 06: Drybrush Chainmail highlights on all armored areas
Step 07: Use Enchanted Blue as highlights on robe
Step 08: Use Lightning Blue as final highlights on robe
Step 09: Use Bestial Brown as highlights on leather
Step 10: Use Bubonic Brown as final highlights on leather
Step 11: Use Bubonic Brown as wooden planks on back of shield
Step 12: Use Bestial Brown to fill in wooden planks on back of shield
Step 13: Use Blood Red on top half of shield
Step 14: Use Space Wolves Gray on shield/shirt pattern
Step 15: Use Skull White as highlights for shield/shirt pattern
Step 16: Use Dwarf Bronze on sword handle
Step 17: Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 18: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 19: Drybrush final highlight Skull White on base

Monday, September 03, 2012

I love Reaper's new Bones line of miniatures - essentially the same figures as their Legends and Warlord line but cast in a new plastic resin (end result is a miniature that's very similar to the Wizards D&D line of figures - the plastic is soft and somewhat bendable). The first miniature I painted was the ghost - it is a Julie Guthrie sculpt and used in three of Reaper's lines - it's a $1.99 in Bones, $4.29 in Legendary Encounters (pre-painted 20017), and $5.99 in the metal Warlord (14148). All the same figure but at different price point - Bones gives you a $4 savings over the same metal figure in the Warlord line!

I used Reaper Master Series Clouded Sea as the base color right from the bottle. It took directly onto the plastic without any prior prep/primer (as advertised). A note about Bones, there is a small amount of mold line - I tried all sorts of methods from files to knife and there's really no getting it off - the plastic is too soft and squishy for it to be effective - these are designed to paint and play - not as your next masterpiece - and I'm ok with that!

I then added Skull White to the mix and drybrushed the ghost - I kept at it - adding more white - then another drybrush layer until I was happy with the result. Some Chaos Black for the tombstone with a drybrush of Fortress Grey. The whole thing from start to finish took me a couple of hours.

During each painted layer (and when finished) I bounced the miniature on the desk; off the desk and onto the floor, and gave it a couple severe beatings. To my surprise not a scratch or a dent - the soft plastic just absorbs and the paint stays stuck on. Never-the-less I gave the miniature a quick shot of dull coat when I was finished - if nothing else it's just to dull off the shine of the paint.

I'm quite pleased with the new bones line - an awesome price savings over the metal - the detail looks very close to it's metal counterpart and certainly won't be noticeable on the gaming table. The flexibility to grab a handful of these and throw them down on the gaming table without damaging the mini or the paint job is remarkable - add in the cost savings and you get to have your cake and eat it too!

I named this one Ghost Ralor - the Warlord figure is named Railor - but I was running out of room and therefore took out the I in the name so I could fit it all on.

What's great about the hobby of miniature painting is that everyone within the hobby treats your interest more like family - from conventions, to group get togethers, and even the vendors themselves.

Earlier in the year I was at my local gaming store and happened to come across an old box of bases by Fortress Figures (I had to blow some dust off it). They were 1" square bases - the type that had a recess where the figure could be placed (good for Reaper, Ral Partha, RAFM, etc. - putting them on a base helps stabilize them during in-game use). Many of the older figures from Fortress Figures came with this type of basing prior to the more popular slotta base.

I love the 1" square base with recess as I have for years purchased the Reaper base 74006 - 1" square bases from metal so that my figures didn't fall over during an rpg session. Unfortunately, as much as I love them, the price of metal has skyrocketed and Reaper reduced the number of bases in the package from 4 to 3 while the price has gone up to $8 - that's almost $3 a base - add that to every figure in my collection and it becomes quite costly.

I tried out those plastic bases by Fortress Figures and you can see the results with my Mushroom Men and Skeletons. The plastic base sits a little taller than the metal base, but I've found since that using a nice gritty sand paper (T2) can reduce that down a bit while making sure the plastic is level on the bottom (the plastic bases have a tendency to be a bit more warped out of the box than the metal).

The above sample picture shows a Reaper figure in a metal base, and then another in a plastic base. The third is after I fill the base with drywall compound (I let that dry and then carve my dungeon path) and the fourth is the new Reaper Bones mini in a filled in plastic base.

I went back to my local gaming store and I couldn't find another package - as mentioned, the one there had quite a bit of dust on it. So I contacted Fortress Figures directly - showed them some pictures - and asked if they had any more of those plastic bases. I received a reply from Jeff Rodman (owner of Fortress Figures) that it had been several years and he'd dig out the mold for me and see if it was still viable. It was and he made me a batch of 50 for $25 - that's $0.50 each - a heck of a lot better than $3 for metal.
Particularly for the new Bones miniatures by Reaper - there's absolutely no reason to put a $3 metal base on a $2 plastic figure! Plus, it gives that plastic Bones figure a solid base so it won't get knocked over during game play!

Nice to know that there's great customer service with folks who care. With all those new Reaper Bones (I pledged at the Vampire level), I'm sure that I'll be ordering another 50 -100 bases from Jeff and Fortress Figures.

Welcome...

My foray into miniature painting - enjoy! Follow along through google friend connect or email (through feedburner). If you have something interesting to say then please leave a comment or drop me a note at my gmail address of rickajr.